A Lesson in Customer Service

Some time ago I wrote a blog entry about business travel, which did not paint a pretty picture. Anything that can improve things has to be good … and along comes Porter Airlines. For the last few weeks I have been flying to and from Toronto using the new airline Porter which flies into the Toronto Centre airport. The service has been good, the people friendly and I have not been scowled at once … this would be a good lesson for Air Canada! This is in fact my second blog entry about Porter’s service, which just shows how impressed I am!

Yesterday was the first major glitch for me as a traveler. When I arrived at the airport to come home on my 7pm flight there was some fog hanging around, and from previous experiences when Air Canada operated from the island I knew the flight was likely to be cancelled.

Again my previous experiences would result in everyone being piled into a bus, trucked to Pearson and told to find seats on the next regularly scheduled Air Canada flight to Ottawa. Typically there was significant delay, much frustration and much shoulder shrugging by the ever “friendly” Air Canada people. “Not my fault” was the usual refrain.

The Porter experience was very different. Their plane was diverted to Pearson and waiting for us in the Executive jet area so that we did not have to clear security for a second time. We boarded a bus at about the designated time for the original flight and were driven comfortably to the steps of the plane at Pearson. We were given $50 credits to be used for a future flight and received copious apologies from several friendly Porter staff, all of whom were keen to make this as painless as possible.

All in all I was home an hour later than I would have been and left with a very positive feeling about this airline. I certainly hope Porter is successful, I would be happy to fly them anytime … especially if it means NOT flying Air Canada.